Motor suspension for vehicles.



No. 760x147..

PATENTED MAY 24, 1904. ZEE. MAXIM. MOTOR SUSPENSION lEOE` VEHICLES.

l AEPLIOATIOE FILED JUNE 1a, 190s.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

N0 MODEL.

Illll HIHUHH .1.. o 9 .1.. 4.. 2 V.. A M. D E M m ,m n. m H ,E V .R M0 XT `N Mm.. s PN .n HS U s R 0 T o M No. 760,747.l

Arrmonlon FILED muis. 100s.

lo 101m..

liza@ .No.vOOQm. I f PATBNTED MAY 24,1904. n

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MOTOR SUSPENSION FORVBHI'OLES.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 13, 1903.

N0 MODEL. 4 3 SHEETSfSHEET 3.

" UNITED .STATES Patented May 24,.194. I

PATENT OFFICE.

HIRAM PERCYMAX'IM, OFrITTsBuRe, PENNSYLVANIA.

, MoTon SUSPENSION4 Fon vel-neuss.`

SPECIFICATION' forming-part pf 'Letters Patent No. 760,747, dated May 24, 1904.

Application sied June 13, 190s.;

To all whore it `may concern?. i Be it known that I, HIRAM PERCY MAXIM,- a resident of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of lPennsylvania, havevv inventedv a new and useful Improvement in Motorv Suspension for Vehicles; and I' do hereby de'- l clare the following tobe afull, clear, and exact description thereof.

l My invention relates to I notor-vevzhicles,'and

more especially to the manner of suspending the motor therefrom. *y Y The object of Inyinvention is'to improve motor suspension for vehicles, sothat the construction of the, vehicle is greatly cheap.

ened .and simplied, and"` to so suspend the motor that all driving strains willlbe self-contained between the motor and driving-wheel axle and will not affect or be affected lby the vehicle-springs. i

A further object is so to suspend the motor of motor-vehicles that it willbe possible to use all standard vehicle parts-su'ch as springs,

axlesywhe'els; and. other materials-which are.

always cheap and easily obtainable and which by long years of experience have been found most satisfactory for vehicle use.

To the accomplishment ofthe aforesaid objects` the invention consists, generally stated, in suspending the motor 'from .the body of the vehicle by a hinge-joint, arranging suit;A

able driving-gearing between the" motor 'and' the driving-wheel', andprovlding means', such as a distance-rod or the like, tornaintain the*`r Fig. 3. l

Inthedrawings the vehicle-body is shown atl, the driving-wheelat 2, and the axle at 3. 4 represents one of the side springs of a platsaiai No: 161,249. No model.)

form construction, and 5 the cross-spring thereof;

All Vparts of the vehicle thus .far described may be of the usual stand ard vehicle construction such as used by any vehicle-manufacturer. In fact, as will hereinafter appear, rny invention does not v.necessitate the construction of any special form of vehicle, but can be applied to .anyexisting vehicle.

\ The motor is shown at'. I This will be ini closed 1n the usual casing, as`1s common, and

in carryingout my invention'said motor and casing will be suspended from the body of the vehicle by-lafsimp'le hinge-joint 7. One member of this hinge-jointwill of course be formed-on the motor-casing. or arm 8 thereof and the other maybe a simple hinge member l or the like, `which may be bolted to, the Vehicle-bod'y; but for simplicity I prefer to make the spring-hanger 9 withvtwo eyes, one for the attachment of the spring itself and the other to form the hingemember from which the'motor is suspended. There are two sus# pending-arms 8, one at each end of the motor, and preferably the hinge is a doublejawed yon'e---tha't is, vone member has two jaws,

Vas 10 and'illY-'so that the severeside thrusts 'or'jolts to which vehicles are -subjected will .notbring allthe lateral strain on one of the I'notorarms. The double-jawed hinge offers "a resistance to lateralmotionno matter in `which direction 1t comes, so Vthat each arrn takes aportion of the side strains. v All Wagon-WheelSare dished, and hence the plane" .of the wheels are slightly inclined from' a true vertical position,v and this causes the driving-sp'rocketslQ on the Wheels to be also slightly-inclined. It is'desirablel to. incline the vsprocket 13 on the motor so it will aline Vmotorsfso that their outer ends are slightly "lower than their' inner ends.

' This -is clearlyindicated infFig. 2..-

This can be 1 Suitable means are provided forJ maintain- Ving the motor an approximately uniform dis tance at all times from the yvehicle-axle. v Yarlous 'arrangements and meansA for th1s pury pose may be employed,and I have shown for this purpose a distance-rod 14, which is hinged at its inner end to a clip 15, secured to the vehicle.

vehicle-axle, and its opposite end `is hinged to the motor-easing, so that as the motor moves up and down with the movement of the vehicle-body this rod will hold the same approximately a uniform distance from the axle, thus enabling the driving-gear between the motor and driving-wheel to always remain in proper driving contact. Preferably one such rod will be placed at each end of the motor and also preferably each vehicle will be provided with twov motors, as indicated in Fig. 2, one for each of the rear wheels ofthe In such cases four distance-rods will beemployed. This, however, is not abso- Y where it is-applied, and there is practically .no overhang or added friction on any rotating part. The distance-rod is adjustable, as by means of the turnbuckle 18, and is also swiv- 4eled, vso as -to permit of .the rocking of the body and motor with relation to the axle. Such rocking motion would cause torsional strains in the distance-rods were they not swiveled. This swiveling is conveniently accomplished by having a single locking-nut 19 in contact with the turnbuckle, thus keeping the turnbueklefromturning and at the same time permitting the two parts of the distance-rod to have rotary movement relatively to each other. Y

Any suitable driving-gearing will be arranged between the motor and the drivingwheel 2. Preferably, however, this gearing will be of the sprooket-and-chain type, which is comparatively cheap and in the use of which exact center locations are not necessary, as approximations will be. suiiicient. Consequently the hing-ing of the distance-rod 14 to the clip 15 will answer the purpose, and said hinge-joint need not be at the mathematical axis of the driving-wheel. The distance-rod, it .will be observed, is so connected to the motor-easing that the arc described about the hinge between said rod and the clip15 will always lie in or within the arc described about the mathematical axis of the driving-wheel, sothat as the motor swings up and down with .the vehicle-body the drive-chain may at times slacken somewhat, but will never tighten. A slight slaekness, however, will not affect the driving power of the chain, whereas the sudden tightening thereof might cause breakage. The arrangement shown absolutely prevents the latter. The sprocket-chain is shown at 20, and this in Figs. 1 and 2 is connected to a sprocket-wheel 13 on the counter-shaft 21 of the motor, and also passes over the sprocketwheel 12, secured to the vehicle drive-wheel. This sprocket-wheel 12 for simplicity is provided with attaching means of such a construction that it can be attached to any standard wagon-wheel, so as not to necessitate special constructions of wheels. These attaching 4means comprise clips 22, which pass around the wheel .-spokes 23 and are of general U shape and provided on their inner ends with threaded Shanks which pass through openings in the sprocket-wheel and are secured in place by ordinary nuts.

In the modification shown in Fig. 4 the same yprinciple as above described ,isfollowed, ex- `cept that the motor is shown suspended back of the axle instead of in front thereof. 1n both the forms shown in Figs. 1 and 4 the motoris provided with a counter-shaft 21, geared at its inner end to the inner end of the motorshaft, so as to reduce the speed, and the sprocket is on the outer end of this countershaft. In the ease of small wagons, however, where the speed wanted is high enough to enable a single gear-reduction to bc employed,

`such as shown in Fig. 3, the sprocket-pinion 13 is placed directly upon the end of the motor-shaft itself, and the counter-shaft is omitted. In this form it will be noticed that the forward spring hanger or bracket 9 is made double-that is,with two downwardly-projecting arms, to one of which is attached the spring and to the other of which the motor is hinged.

-It will be observed that with my invention the motor is suspended entirely from the body of the vehicle, so that it is fully protected by the cushioning effects of the springs and is only slightly eifected by the jolting and jarring -of. the axle. Furthermore, by this arrangement all of the driving strains are confined between the motor and the vehicle driving-wheel and are not transmitted to the vehicle-body. The construction, furthermore, is such that outside of the motor driving-gear, sprocket-wheels,and distance-rods practically no modiiication of standard vehicle construcmotor and driving connection can be applied to these standard parts wlth ease and by an IOO ordinary'meohanic, so that the costof vehicles g l isvery largely reduced and at the same time an eicient driving means therefor is provided.

What I claim as rny invention, and .desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a motor-vehicle, the combination with the vehiclebody and driving-wheeltherefor, of a motor suspended from the body by a Inovable connection, said motor having a main shaft and a counter shaft, gearing between 2. In a motor-vehicle, the combination with a vehicle-body, ofy wheels4 and axle therefor, springs for supporting the body on said axle, hangers for connecting said springs to the body, one of said hangers being provided with two eyes'or loops, a motor suspended from one of said eyes or loops, driving-gearing arranged between the motor and driving-wheel, and a distance rod between the motor and driving-'wheel axle.

In testimony whereof I, the said HIRAM l l PERGY MAXIM, have hereuntoset my hand. n HIBAM PERCY MAXIM.

Witnesses:

G. C. RAYMOND, ROBERT C. To'r'rEN. 

